But if you’re in a bind and those texts are all you’ve got, can we agree that it’s worth doing our best to help them gain some new understandings from it? Here are some ways it’s possible.
No, they may not understand grade-level texts 100% right now. With time, they will need fewer scaffolding as their English proficiency grows. When confronted with a grade-level text, our ELLs can put these assets together with our scaffolds to get the most out of the reading. There may be some things that their home language has in common with English, and they may already have locked in on some patterns. They are constantly making connections to familiar words, contextual clues, synonyms, and cognates. The thing is, they already have some cognitive assets that they’ve been using already to make sense of words on a page. With your English learners always in mind, you may be already in the habit of considering with each text that shows up in the classroom: Is this comprehensible to my ELLs? What strategies for ELLs might be beneficial here? Perhaps you’re simply writing your content and language objectives on the board. Maybe you’re modeling how to write a letter or an opinion paper. So you might be about to read from a textbook as a class, or giving a reading passage to teach about a science or social studies topic. Choose one or two to try out the next time you have some important text to present to your class. These strategies aren’t too hard to put into practice in your classroom! Don’t try to do them all at once, of course. I’m here to share how to scaffold for ELLs so they can interact with your grade-level text and participate in learning. They just need the text to be presented in a way that supports their comprehension.
This is a common and often frustrating position to find yourself in, but there is good news! English learners can often have a positive learning experience with grade-level text, and get some instructional “meat” out of it. You don’t have time to go hunting on the internet for that “just right” text, and couldn’t afford the expensive differentiated book set on the topic. But you have a feeling it is not going to sufficiently get across the content. You think you could probably track down a sort-of-relevant book for early readers. You’ve got great activities lined up…but you can’t locate text for your English learners that is relevant AND on a reading level they can access. We’ve all been there: You’re preparing for a new lesson, with standards-related content to teach your students.
0 kommentar(er)
